Jade Spider (Ship)
Description Jade Spiders, along with the Jade Spider Commandships, are the first spelljammers to be crafted by the drow. To date they have only been found in areas of space where the drow are strong enough to act openly, and in most spheres any drow in space still tend to use the modified ships of other races. The hulls of these craft are constructed from a mixture of metal (including adamantite in the drill assembly, but primarily steel), an artificial ceramic with a gem-like appearance, and quantities of underdark ores. The magical fusion of these elements is what gives the hard shell of the Jade Spider its high resistance to damage. The only two entry points to the ship are through the drill assembly, and through a defensible hatch leading to the ballista turret. The metallic grappling legs are resistant to heat (+2 to saves), and are used to attach the Jade Spider to an enemy ship, after which point the drill will bore into the enemy's hull (inflicting 1d3+2 hull points of damage and causing a Hull Holed critical hit) in one round, disgorging a drow boarding party on the following round. This whole process takes a mere three rounds, and is particularly effective against ships which have most of their marines on the outer decks, leaving the interior decks undefended. The web-caster of the Jade Spider is a magical device at the rear of the ship which operates as a light jettison in terms of range, rate of fire, and THAC0. In effect, however, a hit from the web-caster is identical to a Web spell cast by a 5th level mage. The web-caster is particularly useful for disabling an enemy ship's heavy weapons. Crew A Jade Spider will typically carry a full crew of 10 drow, usually including 2-4 minor priestesses of Lolth, one of whom usually serves as the captain, and another as the helmsman. The remainder of the crew are typically warriors, although they are often multi-class, and specialize in boarding actions. Jade Spiders powered by lifejammers use neogi or umber hulks as their preferred victims, although elves of all sorts are also welcome, and given a shortage of the above any beings that they can capture will be used. Any Jade Spider ship will carry 4d6 magical constructs (also known as jade spiders) on the exterior of the ship, which serves as a significant deterrant against anyone attempting to board the Jade Spider. Jade spider constructs are golem-like creations which appear as massive spiders made out of jade. In reality, each jade spider construct is made from an enormous undead spider which has been coated with a thick magical substance of molasses-like consistency, and then consecrated to Lolth in an extensive ceremony. After the ceremony jade spider constructs are completed, and will mindlessly follow the orders of any drow. In the case of conflicting orders, the drow with the highest level will be obeyed, although a priestess of Lolth will always be obeyed in preference to a member of any other class. These constructs were devised by spacefaring priestesses of Lolth, with the aid of drow wizards (Jade Spider: Int non; Al N; AC 5; Mv 10; HD 6+6; hp 54; THAC0 15; #Att 3; Dmg 3d4/3d4/2d4; ML 20; SD saves as M16; Sz 15' tall; XP 10,000), and are particularly useful against neogi ships, since the umber hulk slaves of the neogi are violently allergic to the constructs (save vs. poison or suffer -3 to all rolls while within 15' of jade spider), and are deathly afraid of them. In a typical boarding action, the jade spiders keep the enemy crew above-decks busy while the drow slay and plunder below-decks. Ship Uses Raider: Jade Spiders tend to be used only for raiding. While the drow first came to space in order to oppose the Elven Imperial Navy, most drow in space now tend to focus on exterminating the neogi, whom they see as an affront to their patron goddess. Ironically, many who spot these rare ships mistake the Jade Spider for a neogi vessel, and attack or flee on sight.This misconception only solidifies the drow determination to destroy the neogi. Raiding Jade Spiders are usually solitary, but may be found in groups of as many as five. The crew of a Jade Spider will loot anything of value from their opponents, bringing this loot back to their base, whether it be a Jade Spider Commandship, an asteroid base, or some other hidden bolt-hole. Since the Jade Spiders target neogi in preference to other races, a large portion of their loot tends to be in the form of former slaves of the neogi, who now find themselves to be slaves of the drow. Other Configurations The Jade Spider is too new to have generated any other configurations. In addition, the nature of its hull would serve to make any modification difficult at best.